Has it come to this? A Porsche without a manual transmission? Such sacrilege, decry the faithful. Time to donate to Car and Driver’s campaign to save the manual.

But wait. Porsche — while simultaneously dumping the manual in the GT3 and Turbo, which will henceforth only get Porsche’s seven-speed Doppelkupplung (PDK) transmission — has also developed the world’s first seven-speed manual, which was designed in conjunction with the automatic and is, lo and behold, the gearbox found in our bright yellow C4S Coupe test car. What a pleasant surprise.

That’s not to suggest the PDK is second rate — in fact, the PDK is brilliant, delivering instantaneous gear changes, better performance and improved fuel economy than the manual, plus it has a full manual mode, albeit one that happens to operate without a clutch pedal. But the manual, like all manuals, is always more effective at marrying the driver to the car, and vice versa, of making the car that much more intimate. And the 2013 911 C4S is one of the more intimate cars anyone can own, such is the degree to which it communicates, responds, sounds and feels. Some even say it is the best 911 of them all.

Then an odd thing happened. After a few days of driving the manual, and loving every minute, especially the way it was impossible to mistakenly go from fourth to seventh gear, which sits in its own slot in the upper right gate, the thought occurred to me that using a third floor pedal just to change gears, when a flick of the fingers could do the exact same thing, might really be a bit archaic. Maybe the whole clutch and gear-rowing thing is, after all, a bit like those $2 photo booths in the mall?

Sure, gears one to six have a tight feel, with top speed reached in 6th gear, and 7th does indeed calm the cabin and save fuel, but I did, from time to time, need to look at the gear indicator in the rev counter to remind me which gear I was in. And before I begin to sound like the soft, old ninny I am, the only automatic that could replace a manual, especially in a Porsche, is the PDK. The first 991 911 I drove last year was equipped with a PDK, and at no point was the drive in that rear-wheel drive automatic 911 any less satisfactory than in the current, manual C4S (though there was an annoying rattle from the sunroof in the C4S). The two cars even have the same amount of horsepower, 400, but the C4S gets just a bit more torque at 325 lb.-ft.

Much else in the C4S was the same as C2S — the now longer wheelbase, the beautiful interior, graceful exterior and intoxicating exhaust note. What differs, of course, is the wider rear track, the red LED light strip across the back, and the hindquarters that boast 45 mm of extra girth in the C4S to give it an unmistakably large but attractive caboose. As well, there is of course the AWD system that works so eloquently behind the scenes. Indeed, it’s so invisible that the driver will rarely notice it until he or she encounters wet or slippery roads.

Then the C4S, which is constantly monitoring all four wheels for slip, adjusts the distribution of torque in conjunction with Porsche’s Traction Management to send power where it’s needed most, including almost 100 per cent to the front wheels if required. Adding only 50 kg of weight, the AWD system adds such immense grip it became almost impossible to spin the tires.

Which is a shame, because a smoking, rip-snorting burnout or controlled drift is exactly the thing one wants to do with a 911.